Commercial vehicles have become an unexpected casualty of Supreme Court’s temporary ban on registration of large diesel-run cars and SUVs in NCR.MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: Commercial vehicles have become an unexpected casualty of Supreme Court's temporary ban on registration of large diesel-run cars and SUVs in National Capital Region.

Authorities in NCR, which includes Delhi and places like Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad, have put the registration of trucks and buses as well on hold, blaming confusion over the court's December 16 order. While the court said passenger vehicles with engine capacity of more than 2 litres can't be registered until March 31 in NCR, there was no mention of commercial vehicles strapped with such power plants.

Registration authorities, who don't want to risk contempt of court, are avoiding registration of such commercial vehicles until the court reconvenes on January 6, when they expect some more clarity on the matter.

"The Supreme Court banned registration of diesel vehicles with more than 2,000cc engines in NCR. Earlier the NGT (National Green Tribunal) had banned registration of all diesel vehicles in Delhi till January 6. Because of confusion over these orders, registration of diesel trucks is not happening right now," said a senior official at a regional transport office in the region.

Just like the passenger vehicle market, the NCR is the largest market for medium and heavy commercial vehicles. At around 2,000 units a month, the region accounts for 8-9% of national sales.

Since Delhi already doesn't allow registration of diesel-run commercial vehicles, most of the diesel-run commercial vehicles, especially trucks, are registered in places like Gurgaon and Noida. The court order now covers such places as well.

While the decision of the court to not allow older vehicles was expected to generate replacement demand for new trucks, a broad definition of banning diesel vehicles above 2 litres would create uncertainty in a segment considered to be a barometer of the economy's health, industry executives said. This is happening also at a time when the commercial vehicle segment has started to show signs of sustained demand. The medium and heavy commercial vehicle market grew more than 30% in the April-to-November period, with volumes of 1.81 lakh units with about 15,000 to 18,000 units being registered in the NCR region.

"Yes, there is an industry-wide challenge about registration of some of the CV vehicles in the NCR region due to the recent order," said a Tata Motors spokesperson. "We are working as a company and industry to better understand the situation and the best way to address these."

Rajive Saharia, head of global trucks at Ashok Leyland, said the SC order is something that the industry has to abide by.

"In our case, the volume is not very large, so there is no major fallout from Ashok Leyland's perspective, but over a period of time, this decision is likely to lead to deferral of purchase, especially of intermediate commercial vehicles. While Delhi is not the trucking capital, 15-20% of buying decision are taken in Delhi-NCR, so the decision-making is likely to be impacted by this verdict," said Saharia.

"Already diesel trucks were not allowed to register in the National Capital Territory, with trucks in Gurgaon region also not getting registered, it is leading to delays in orders getting executed," a senior official at a leading Indian truck company told ET.

Industry players said this is adding to the inconvenience largely to small fleet operators within the NCR region. Operators with all-India permits are getting their new vehicles registered in other states.

Truck makers are also hoping for clarity once the court reconvenes in the first week of 2016.

Prices of most SUVs were cut between Rs 1.1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh following the implementation of GST, which subsumed over a dozen central and state levies like excise duty, service tax, and VAT from July 1.